ion, even against the efforts of the
Federal Government? Did the Southern leaders prefer the election of a
Republican, their open opponent, to Douglas, their friend and half-ally?
To such questions as these there can be little more than a conjectural
answer. It would be most interesting to know the true thoughts and
purposes of the leading delegates. We shall see a little later the
interpretation given by one of their defenders. But the strong
presumption is that their action was the fruit less of a policy than of
a temper. They had long been growing into a disposition which could
brook no resistance and no contradiction. The irresponsible power of the
master over his slaves; the domination of the slave-holding class over
the local communities, and the expulsion of their opponents; the control
of the government by a united South over a divided North,--these things
had bred a self-confidence and self-assertion which would stop at
nothing. The slave-holding principle, in full flower, was a principle
which recked nothing of legal majorities or governments. Its basis was
force, and it would use whatever force was necessary to maintain itself.

The Douglas Democrats were still patient. Left with the original
convention in their hands, they declined to press their advantage. The
traditional rule required a two-thirds vote to nominate; and it was
agreed that for this purpose the seats left vacant by the seceders must
be counted,--which would prevent the nomination of Douglas.
Administration men from the North had stayed in the convention when
their Southern friends left. The body adjourned, to meet in Baltimore in
the last of June. The rival convention met in Richmond only to adjourn
to the same time and place. But any hopes of reunion were vain. Neither
side would yield. In the regular convention, to some of the vacant seats
Douglas delegates had in the interim been chosen. They were admitted,
against the protest of the administration minority, who found in this a
pretext for withdrawing and joining the seceding convention. With these
went a majority of the Massachusetts delegates, including Benjamin F.
Butler and Caleb Cushing; Cushing had been president of the Charleston
body. The two conventions now made their respective nominations. With
Douglas was joined for Vice-President Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia.
The seceders nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky and Joseph Lane
of Oregon. Breckinridge was Vice-President und